


Glub Glub

by buzzoff



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Aquarium AU, Jasper visits regularly, M/M, Modern AU, Monty works at an aquarium, they don't know each other aside from seeing each other in passing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-08
Updated: 2016-06-08
Packaged: 2018-07-13 01:44:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,758
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7133501
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/buzzoff/pseuds/buzzoff
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Monty has a summer job at an aquarium and Jasper is a regular visitor who freaks out periodically about all the cool fish. Monty thinks it's endearing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Glub Glub

**Author's Note:**

> Today's (well, the day before yesterday's) prompt is "Fish", so, here, have this late Jonty at an aquarium.

Monty Green didn't hate his summer job. Sure, he had to get up at 7:15am, even on Saturdays, don a hideous pair of dark khaki pants and a terribly unflattering blue polo with the aquarium's logo on the right breast, and sure he got bit and lashed at multiple times a day by unruly fish who he was only trying to feed, and of course he always came home smelling like fish food and salt water, but, the pay was okay and the labor wasn't too extensive -it's not like he was a scuba diver, after all- and yeah, okay, so there might be the added bonus of a certain regular who comes every Wednesday and Saturday to marvel at the new fish, but that was totally beside the point! It's not like Monty had a crush on the tall, strikingly handsome, boy with a lopsided grin and over excited doe eyes who sometimes clasped his hand over his heart if a fish was being very active near the glass and who was especially cute when he did thi-  
Okay, so Monty might've had a little crush. But it was totally no big deal! At least, that's what Monty told himself when he accepted the offer to work on his day off, which just so happened to fall on a Saturday, because a coworker was out sick. No big deal, not in the slightest.  
Monty dragged himself out of the bed that morning at 7:15am, just like he had the day before and before and before, but today, for whatever reason, he was a little less bummed to be working on a Saturday. The boy made his way to the shower, then back to his room to dress, then to the kitchen for a bowl of cereal, then back to the bathroom to brush his teeth, and then he would slip his shoes on and be out the door by 7:40, easy peasy. Then there was the 30 minute drive to work by himself, since close to no one was out and about this early on a Saturday during the summer. One car was beside him at a stop light, Mrs. Sua from down the street, probably going grocery shopping before anyone else was at the market. Monty gave a small half-wave in her general direction, which she returned with a friendly smile. The stop light flickered to green and the two cars went their separate ways, Monty going left and Mrs. Sua continuing straight ahead. Radio stations were flicked through and all rejected in their own time, so Monty drove in silence, letting himself ponder what would happen at work today. First, he'd be asked to set up the tanks, lifting the night screens and turning on all the lights, maybe cleaning out a filter or two before he'd have to feed the fish, and after that, they'd open. A few families would be bright and early, but most people would start showing up around 9am, and among that crowd would be the cute regular who always showed up around 9:05, sometimes later, most times earlier, and he would purchase a ticket and go directly to the tropical fish tanks, making his way around the circle until he ends up at the amphibious tanks, which is when he's seen it all. Sometimes that's when he leaves, but most times he would circle back around to see all of the fish who might've been sleeping when he made his rounds the first time. After that, the perfect stranger would leave. After that, Monty counted down the hours until he was off the clock. At lunch, Monty might look around and hope that the guy had stayed around to grab something to eat, but it never turned out that way, and that's probably for the best, because if he did meet him, Monty wasn't sure what he'd say, anyway. "Hey, you're very cute and sometimes if we're not too busy, I like watching all the cute facial expressions you make at the attractions. My name's Monty, by the way, please tell me yours so I can stop calling you "the cute regular" in my online journal." Yeah, because that wasn't incredibly creepy. Monty would really like to know his name, though. It was starting to get on his nerves that he could think about someone for this long and still not have an idea what his name was.  
A sigh fell from Monty's mouth as he parked his car at the employee entrance of the aquarium, pushing all daydreams aside for when he got off work. He opened the car door and stepped out, making his way across the pavement and using his key to the back entrance to get in. Monty was in a little early, which made him responsible for cutting on all the lights and making sure no dead fish were floating around the tank. It's a lovely job, really.  
The first task was completed thanks to a master switch in the back which made Monty feel like a super villain when he flipped it, making all the little red bubbles on the machine light up simultaneously. The second task was harder, but Monty got it done eventually. With only three dead fish in the entire system, today felt like it might be a good day. The optimism put a smile on Monty's face.  
Locks moving in the door behind the teen meant that another coworker was here, right on time. Monty inwardly hoped it was his supervisor so he could get a few extra points for showing up earlier and clearing the tanks even though he didn't really have to. However, it wasn't his supervisor. It wasn't even a coworker. Behind the door was cute fish boy, looking up at Monty with wide eyes from his slightly crouched position, a bent paperclip falling to the ground from his hand. Monty was equally taken back, staring in utter shock. "Please don't tell anyone." The boy begged, visibly starting to hyperventilate. That was the first thing Monty heard his on-going crush say to him, and Monty still didn't really know what to do. "I promise I wasn't going to do anything bad, I just... I really wanted to feed the fish. Always have, just never had the guts to ask anyone." He explained further, wide eyes turning to the tile floor as he picked at his fingernails. "I-I didn't think anyone would be here, the lights weren't on when I drove past." He continued to ramble. Monty needed to stop this, because soon enough a real coworker would come back here and ask what was going on.  
"Look, um, guy, I-"  
"Jasper." The regular supplied, the worry never leaving his eyes as he cracked a meek smile.  
"Alright, Jasper, I won't tell anyone if you just leave now and don't let anyone else see you leave." Monty prompted, causing Jasper to nod his head hastily.  
"Got it." He continued to nod vivaciously, starting to back out of the room. "Wait, can I come back later? I kinda come here every Wedne-"  
"-sday and Saturday, yeah, I know. You can come back later but right now you need to go. Quickly." Monty said urgently, a blush starting to form a few moments later once he realized he revealed he had been paying attention to when Jasper came to visit. "You're always here during my shift," Monty tried to explain, but before he could, he heard footsteps coming around the building. "Nevermind, just go!" Monty whisper shouted, waving him off with many shooing motions of his hand. Jasper complied immediatly, running off in the other direction.  
The coworker coming around the corner coincidentally happened to be his supervisor, who clapped Monty on the back once she made it inside and looked around a bit. "Good work, Green. I'll put in a good word for you with the manager." She said with a warm smile, starting to leave the room before she turned back to Monty. "Oh, and since you're covering for Atom, you're supposed to take over his job at the gift shop, but I could cover that if you want. I know you'd rather be working with the fish."  
"Um, yeah, I'd love that, thank you." He nodded, offering a tight smile that she returned before she left, leaving Monty alone. The teen slid down a wall and sighed into his hands. His name is Jasper. 

By 9am, about three families came to visit the aquarium, one of which had already left and another was now in the gift shop on their way out. Monty checked the clock and realized that people would start flooding in soon, so he kissed a quick goodbye to the moderate silence and looked around to make sure everyone was at their posts. Someone at the entrance, check. Someone in the gift shop, check. Manta Ray divers in gear, check. Now all they needed was customers, which they got soon enough. Apparently, a summer camp was taking a field trip to the lovely aquarium today, which meant someone would have to volunteer as a guide for the day or the supervisor would pick someone. Surprise surprise, no one volunteered to lead a bunch of loud kids around the aquarium for an hour, and surprise surprise, Monty's supervisor chose Monty on the grounds that he wouldn't lash out at the kids if they got annoying like some others would. (This was punctuated with a nod in the general direction of new guy John Murphy who was already deemed unfit to work with the customers after a screaming fit with a particularly rude middle aged man last Tuesday.) Monty accepted the job with a nod and and a faked smile, which was met with a sympathetic look before his supervisor turned and dismissed everyone back to their posts. At least he wouldn't smell like salt water when he got home.  
A few minutes after the news of the field trip surfaced, about 15 kids and two teachers found themselves in the aquarium, waiting to be led somewhere and taught something. Monty sighed before putting on a fake smile and walking towards the crowd, inwardly pushing himself onward on the thought that he actually talked to cute fish guy and learned his name, which still made him real smile a little. Jasper fit him.  
"Alright, hello and welcome to Swish Aquarium, we are very glad to have you all and hope you enjoy your time. If you'll follow me this way, your teac-"  
"Camp counselors." Someone spoke up.  
"Right, your camp counselors will stamp your hand so we know you're a part of the group." Monty explained, leading the group to a small space by the window where they lined up and got their hands stamped with red stars, all happily chattering and giggling away as they waited for everyone to be stamped so the trip could progress. Monty looked around and saw Jasper walking through the doors, already a wide smile plastered to his face. Monty smirked a little to himself before turning back to 15 sets of wide eyes staring up at him, which made him jump a little. "Oh, alright, I take it everyone is stamped?" He asked, being met with a chorus of yes's and frantic little nods. Monty nodded before beginning to walk towards the tropical fish section, gesturing for the class to follow behind. One girl stepped forward and grabbed Monty's hand, happily skipping beside him. The teen smiled down at the girl before shaking his head a little and continuing forward, ending up in the tropical fish area, causing most of the children to disperse and stare in awe at the tanks, but the girl who grabbed Monty's hand hadn't left his side. "Hey, don't you want to see the fish?" Monty asked, crouching down to the girl's height. She shrugged and shook her head in response. "No." She stated simply.  
"Why not? You don't like fish?" Monty asked, looking around to make sure the kids weren't tapping the glass.  
"I've been here, like, a million gazillion times." The girl explained. "I seened all the fishes already."  
"Really?" Monty considered this for a moment. "Well, you know we add new fish, right?"  
The tiny girl's eyes lit up as she made an exaggerated gasping noise. "Really, there are new fishes?! One's I haven't seened?!"  
Monty nodded with a laugh, pointing her in the direction of the Anthias fish, which were transported there only a month ago. The toddler dropped Monty's hand and ran over with an excited squeal, allowing Monty to raise back to his actual height. "Remember, guys, don't touch the glass, you might scare the fish."  
"Sure thing." A familiar voice said behind him, causing Monty to turn around. Jasper stood there facing the Angelfish tank with a smirk on his face. Monty turned around and shook his head, addressing the children again. "And please don't tap the tanks, either."  
"You got it." Jasper said again from behind him, but Monty ignored it. He was working, after all.  
The toddler who was holding Monty's hand returned by his side, pointing at the tank beside the Angelfish and looking up at him. "What is that fishes?" She asked, peering into the tank.  
"That's a Betta fish," Monty explained, also looking at the tank. "Also known as the Siamese fighting fish."  
"Why is there only one?" She asked, holding her hand in front of the glass and waving.  
"Because Betta fish will fight if they're in a close environment with other fish, and that wouldn't be good." Monty explained, earning a nod from the little girl.  
A few moments passed as the girl stared at the Betta fish before getting bored and looking in both directions, her eyes fixing somewhere behind Monty. "Is that boy your boyfriend?" She asked rather abruptly, pointing at Jasper who overheard and shared the same shocked expression as Monty, who looked over his shoulder and back to the girl. "Um, no." He said, confusion not leaving his face.  
"Oh, okay. I just thought so because he was looking at you like," The child smiled widely and batted her eyelashes, clasping her hands together against her shoulder. "Ooh la la" She said in a whimsical voice that deteriorated into giggles. Monty laughed a little, flicking his eyes to Jasper whose face was redder than the Betta fish in front of Monty. When the girl stopped giggling, she took hold of Monty's hand again. "Alright, everyone, follow me." Monty said, still smirking a little at the young girl's antics. When he passed Jasper, he was still blushing. 

About an hour later, the children had seen everything and were taken to the gift shop, finally leaving Monty to himself long enough for him to breathe. The teen made his way to his supervisor, gesturing that he'd be outside for a break. She gave him a nod and mouthed "Thank you." before he turned to leave, walking out the front doors and finding himself a bench to sit and check his phone on. It displayed nothing important, just a few spam emails and a text from his mom telling him good morning. Monty sat outside for a few minutes before he turned to go back inside, opening the enter door and almost bumping directly into Jasper, who apparently didn't know how to read door signs. "This is the entrance door, Jasper." Monty explained, not stepping aside to let him through.  
"Well hello to you too, cute aquarium guy who still hasn't told me his name." Jasper said sarcastically, a smug look being replaced with a wide-eyed blushing face once he realized he called Monty cute. "Uh, I mea-"  
"Monty." The teen supplied with a smirk and a slowly rising blush. He called him cute! Jasper thinks he's cute!  
"Uh, right." Jasper nodded, letting out a nervous laugh. "Hello to you too, Monty." He corrected himself, walking to the exit door.  
"Hey, cute regular customer guy," Monty said, his smirk portraying the confidence he didn't have as his heart played drums in the loneliest marching band ever. Jasper looked up, brown doe eyes fixed on Monty's. "I get off in thirty min-"  
"-utes for lunch break, I know." Jasper finished with a smile. Turns out the crush wasn't so one-sided after all. "I'll be there."  
"Awesome." Monty said, returning the smile before turning and going back inside the aquarium. And yeah, okay, so maybe he did a little happy dance when no one was looking.


End file.
